(12-08-2015 01:18 AM)Szuchow Wrote: Steven Pinker wrote about this in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature. According to him violence is declining over centuries and one could say that WW II was singular event not part of the trend.

WWI and WWII are directly linked. Following WWII we had the Middle east crisis, Korea, Vietnam, and many more.

Pinker seems rather naive to me. But I hope he is right.

Well, he talk about statistics, percentage of dead in relation to number of people living, etc. There is much more to his argumentation than what I written.

His case may not be rock solid, but it's definitely worth considering.

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

(12-08-2015 06:20 AM)onlinebiker Wrote: One thing -- in the first video -- perhaps I misunderstood it.

This woman is hearing stuff for the first time, right???

When the person on the right asks "Can you hear me?" -she nods- how would the (formerly) deaf girl know that is what she was saying - having never heard spoken language before?

That is a good question, maybe the way English is written and how it can sound a lot like how its written as in you can usually figure out what the word is has something to do with it? I'm not sure though as I have no idea how the brain would handle that situation where signals are being sent to an area of the brain not really used before.

“We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.”
― Carl Sagan

(11-08-2015 11:18 PM)Banjo Wrote: I'd be careful though. We just left the century where more people died in war than in the entire history of man before it.

Steven Pinker wrote about this in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature. According to him violence is declining over centuries and one could say that WW II was singular event not part of the trend.

The thing is that we are so much more efficient at killing people now that it might only take one more world war to wipe out most of humanity. It's not how many wars there are, but how destructive they are.

(12-08-2015 01:18 AM)Szuchow Wrote: Steven Pinker wrote about this in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature. According to him violence is declining over centuries and one could say that WW II was singular event not part of the trend.

The thing is that we are so much more efficient at killing people now that it might only take one more world war to wipe out most of humanity. It's not how many wars there are, but how destructive they are.

It's possible. Though Mongol hordes are credited with about 40 millions deaths.

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.